Review: 10 Aeroflot facts you should know

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1. Aeroflot has one of the youngest and most modern fleet.

The Russian airline Aeroflot is actually operating one of the youngest and most modern fleet in the world with an average 4,1 years of age. In comparison the German Airline Lufthansa has an average age of 9,9 years, American Airlines planes are a little bit older with 10,4 years in average.

But even if you compare Aeroflot to one of the best and youngest airlines in the world, for example Qatar
Airways with an average of 5,9 years, the Russian counterpart still operates younger airplanes. Making it in fact a very safe airline.

2. The worlds first Jet Airline service in the world.

On September 15 in 1956 the worlds first sustained jet airline service from Moscow to Irkutsk with a stopover in
Omsk was introduced on a Tupolev TU-104, a narrow-body jet.

No other jet was regularly operating in the years from 1956 to 1958 anywhere in the world. The Tupolev was later also operating international flights from the Russian capital to Prague. The
TU-104 stayed in service for almost 30 years carrying 90 Million passengers during this period before finally retiring in 1986 for good.

3. Aeroflot was a true war machine.

During the Second World War and the German Invasion from 1941 to 1945, the Russian Airline had flown 1,6 Million special missions for the Red Army. During those missions they carried 1,5 million
soldiers and staff as well as 122,027 tonnes of cargo.

This is approximately a third of the weight of the Empire State Building. Despite the ongoing war, Aeroflot was still operating most of its services to most of its destinations, eastwards beyond
the Ural Mountains.

4. No flights to the United States from 1983-1990.

All civil passenger services between the Soviet Union and the United States of America were discontinued for almost 7 years. This was following the downing of Korean Air flight 007 that was shot
by the Soviet Air Force on 1 September 1983 when it flew over Soviet prohibited airspace.

An executive order followed by President Ronald Reagan banned Aeroflot from further commencing
flights to the United States. The ban was lifted in 1990 after the end of the Soviet Union.

5. Aeroflot had its own Concorde the TU-144.

When we think about supersonic passenger aircrafts the first thing that comes to our mind is the Anglo-French Concorde which was in service with British Airways and Air France.

The plane would be able to serve Paris to New York in just 3 hours. But the Russian airline had its very own version of the Concorde, the Tupolev TU-144 which entered passenger service in 1977.

It was being operated between Moscow and Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan. After a couple of crashes and incidents the passenger fleet was grounded but the airplane remained in service as a
cargo plane until 1983.

6. The last Tupolev retired in 2010.

A real workhorse of the Russian airline was the Tupolev TU-154 which only retired in 2009 after 40 years of service. It has been the last Russian manufactured plane from the Soviet era
which still remained in service after the end of the Union.

It underwent its last scheduled passenger flight from Ekaterinburg to Moscow on New Years Eve in 2009. Nowadays a few government fleets and the Russian Army are operating the Tupolev as well
as Air Koryo, the North Korean Airline which is considered the worst in the world (after Air China).

7. Aeroflot is the official carrier of Manchester United.

The Russian Airline and one of the greatest club football teams, Manchester United have announced their partnership in 2013 making it the first sponsoring deal between a Premier League Club
and a Russian company.

The deal doesn't require the team to fly Aeroflot to its away games or similar and is rather to be seen as a way to renew the image of the Russian airline which had a poor safety record back
during the Soviet era. ManU's biggest rival Liverpool has appointed Garuda Indonesia as it's
official airline while the glorious FC Barcelona trusts in Turkish Airlines.

8. The largest airline in the world.

As of March 2017, Aeroflot's fleet consists of 200 airplanes, which isn't even close to the biggest fleet on earth, which is claimed by American Airlines.

However, by the end of the Soviet Union in 1990, Aeroflot was operating around 10,000 airplanes in a massive international and especially domestic network. Most of those planes were retired
though since barely any of them met international safety standards.

9. Edward Snowden flew Aeroflot from Hong Kong to Moscow.

In order to get there he took a flight on Aeroflot. SU213 to be more specific. He stayed at the Air Express Hotel at the transit zone at Sheremetyevo International airport and
was believed to continue his trip to Cuba. However he has been in Russia ever since and nobody really knows his exact whereabouts to date.

10. Sheremetyevo is Aeroflot's main hub.

Sheremetyevo International Airport is the main hub of the Russian Airline as well as the busiest airport in Russia with 35 million annual passengers.

The Russian capital is home to 3 major airports and while Sheremetyevo is almost exclusively used by Aeroflot, most of the international airlines prefer Domodedovo International Airport. The
former government airport Vnukovo is becoming more and more popular and is mostly served by budget airlines.

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